Establishing what is "appropriate supervision"
Volunteers who work alone

Determining how much is enough supervision and when is it OK for volunteers to work unsupervised may depend on the tasks and type of work volunteers are doing.

Remember that the supervisor's role is not as an extra pair of hands. Their responsibilities are to maintain group focus, allocate tasks, provide on-the-job training, deal with poisons and conduct a health and safety induction.

Be realistic about how many volunteers can be adequately supervised with your existing staff resources. If paid supervisors cannot be present at every work day, develop a supervision roster so that each volunteer/ group is supervised on a regular and equitable basis. Think carefully about how efficiently (or inefficiently) your resources would be used if you are supporting individual volunteer sites - volunteers may be asked to do a certain amount of work experience with a trainer and skilled volunteers before working alone. For safety reasons encourage individual volunteers to work with at least one other person. If you co-ordinate several sites and supervisors, allocate the same one or two supervisors to sites. This will encourage a good rapport and consistency between the volunteers and paid supervisor.

What is your organisation's policy on... ... the amount of supervision for volunteers? ... volunteers working on their own?